TO HELL WITH FAUST
By Zoë Seaton

1998


To Hell with Faust

TO HELL WITH FAUST was a bold and inventive new piece of performance which was inspired by the celebrated tale of a man who sold his soul to the devil. In the tradition of Big Telly's acclaimed productions of Metamorphosis and Cuchulainn, the company assembled a creative team of researchers, a writer/director, composer, choreographer, theatre designer and five performers to explore the story from as many creative angles as possible.

The company used pieces of text from both European and specifically Irish sources, both literary and musical; Dante's Inferno, Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Goethe's Faust, Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer and Seamus Heaney's Station Island, in order to create a rich and ornate collage-style script which juxtaposed classic concepts with contemporary culture. These texts plundered not only for the sinful voluptuousness of their language but also the density of their images. As you turn the corner of each idea expect to see opium dens; torture chambers; seven deadly sins and the devil in all his many forms. This funny, exciting and dynamic piece of theatre asked the unaskable... would you sell your soul? Or have you already...? In a dynamic and vigorous approach to the classic Faustian tale, the company focused on the relationship between the different disciplines of dance, theatre, music, circus and poetry, and exploited the dynamic generated by their cross-fertilisation in performance.

The creative team included a writer, composer, choreographer, an illusionist and five high-energy performers. Extremely accessible, this production engaged audiences at every turn, constantly challenging the traditional concepts of good and evil by exploiting the collaborative potential of words, images, movement and magic to the full.